Regina 3D Launcher Is A Free Launcher For Android With 3D Graphics

New to the Android Market, Regina 3D Launcher shows much promise with its opulent 3D interface and an assortment of new, handy features that takes homescreen customization to a new level, and while it might be more than a few laps behind SPB Shell 3D when it comes to 3D slickness, it does not, unlike the latter, come with a hefty price tag. In fact, it has no price tag at all. That’s right. Regina 3D Launcher, along with all its component apps (AOTW), is absolutely free. Join us after the jump for more.

Though it goes unnoticed at first glance, the overall render quality in Regina Launcher has been kept low, probably on purpose, for better performance. A closer look at text and icons reveals jagged edges and dithered gradients.

Despite that, the interface looks quite amazing and is, in itself, quite a lot of fun to play with. Swipe across the screen to switch between multiple homescreens. The slower you swipe, the more “3D” the inter-screen transitions become. Swipe slow enough, and the launcher arranges all your homescreens in a 3D homescreen browser.

As of this writing, the launcher does not include the option to speed up the transitions so you may find it a little slower than older, more popular launchers the likes of Launcher Pro and Go Launcher. And when we say “slower” we don’t mean “laggy” – the launcher has been tested to run quite smoothly on the HTC Desire and Desire HD.

Each homescreen or “workspace” can have a different wallpaper and a title, or rather “Workspace Name”, that describes its contents. To edit the properties of a workspace, swipe to it and hold down anywhere on the screen to bring up the Add/Edit menu. You’ll find the mentioned options in the Edit tab.

As per default settings, workspace names appear both on each workspace temporarily while swiping normally, and atop each workspace in the 3D “workspace browser”. You can prevent said titles from appearing on one or both of these places by disabling them from Settings > Regina Settings > Workspace Name.

The launcher comes loaded with support for five Regina widgets, some of which need to be installed separately from the Market. Hold down anywhere on the screen to add widgets, shortcuts or folders. The folder feature isn’t available yet and, as promised by the developers, will be included in a future update.

You don’t need to search for these widgets on the Market. Simply navigate to Settings > Regina Settings > Version x.x.xx (Check For Update) and you’ll find direct links to all available Regina widgets and updates.

The ToDo and Calender Regina Widgets can be customized to show a user-defined number of rows, allowing users to fit them in with other widgets on a single homescreen/workspace. Tap the “i” icon at the upper right corner of mentioned widgets to edit them.

A feature that we found particularly interesting was the Secret Workspace, a tap-sequence password for which can be set from the launcher’s settings menu. Secret Workspace is basically a second, hidden layer of multiple homescreens that can be employed to house shortcuts or widgets for, you know, personal stuff.

The password is a sequence of taps, each at one of the four corners of the screen. The screenshot below should clear things up.

From the app drawer, you can place shortcuts to any app on the homescreen. Simply hold down on it, and the app drawer fades away to reveal the homescreen. The launcher also allows you to uninstall apps directly from the drawer using the same method.

The homescreen icon-grid isn’t as “strict” as it is in other Android launchers. Regina Launcher allows you to place icons anywhere on the screen and arrange them anyway you want. You may choose to align icons vertically or horizontally with respect to each other or not.

Additional homescreens/workspaces can be added and existing ones can be rearranged or deleted by pinching in anywhere on the screen.

View the video demo below.

Most users might not consider adopting Regina Launcher as their primary home app as of yet, but clearly, it has loads of potential and a lot to offer – slick transitions and animations, customizable widgets, themes, a hidden workspace and what not. And this is only the debut version. Future updates will have more surprises in store for eye-candy-hungry Android users.

You can grab Regina 3D Launcher for free from the Android Market via the provided link or QR code.

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